Sunday, 23 October 2016

The Great South Run

This weekend we headed to Portsmouth to take part in The Great South Run. Sarah and I booked it in February, after we had run my first 10K in the CRUK Winter Series and wanted to ride on the euphoria of completing it by booking the next challenge up quickly!

Funny how this amazing 10 mile challenge has turned into a 'training run' now that we both have places in the London Marathon (Sarah is running for Prostate Cancer for her Dad and I will share her story and her details on here soon!)

We had a wonderful weekend. It was amazing to take part in such a big race - 22,000 competitors and thousands of spectators too. It was a cold but stunning day along the coast, the atmosphere was amazing, and we enjoyed it immensely.

Some lessons learned from the event, though:

Allow plenty of time to do bag drops, last wee, reach the start line. Running before the run because you are late is not great prep (although we were well warmed up)

Take spectators; seeing our husbands and the kids and then my parents in several places made more difference than I ever imagined. You may only see us for a moment, our lovely supporters, but we carry your cheers and encouragement in our hearts for miles.

RESPECT THE CHALLENGE: This was the GSR organiser's advice and they were right. We had a brilliant weekend, but we did too much, and I realised that on top of being tired before we started, I had not trained enough to enjoy the moment.

Waiting at the start

With Sarah, Marathon Partner

Seeing our husbands and kids

Seeing my Mum and Dad and their red flag

Prosecco? Oh ok then!

This time I ran for Scoliosis

The all important runners' bling

As we finished up our roast lunch in the pub and sipped our bubbles, we realised that in EXACTLY 6 months time, we will still be running around the streets of London. 6 months to train and prepare for this amazing event. Scary.....